Sylvia Fisher

This page lists all known recordings of the Australian soprano Sylvia Fisher (1910-1996). She started her career on the concert platform and the radio in her native Australia but after World War II she travelled in London, joining the Covent Garden company in 1948. For the next decade she sang many of the most demanding dramatic soprano roles, often sharing them with international stars such as Astrid Varnay and Kirsten Flagstad. For such an important singer her recorded legacy is very small, and without broadcast recordings would be almost non-existant until the later stages of her career. Live broadcasts have preserved her Sieglinde in Die Walkure, her Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, her Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and her Queen Elizabeth in Gloriana. No trace seems to remain of her Countess in Figaro, her Kostelnicka in Jenufa, her Senta, or her Elsa, and only small fragments of her Brunnhilde, her Isolde and her Fidelio. It is possible that other recordings exist since Fisher appeared regularly at the Proms in the 1950s, often singing Wagner extracts, and made several recital broadcasts on the radio.